Past, Present, Future
by Lovely- Queen of Toast
Summary: -Amy was alone, but suddenly she sensed someone coming. It was just a trait of hers now, naturally, after over a month of the clue hunt- she was always aware. A person stepped up behind her, and she turned to see Ian Kabra... Ian Kabra was a really, really distant relative. Though, frankly, Amy didn't know how they could ever be related at all. -Amian one-shot


Amy Cahill stared out her window.

Usually, there was a certain hollow-ness you could expect from Amy's brother, Dan. Not Amy. She seemed to be the more cheery of the two lately. But today, today was different from a lot of days. Amy wasn't feeling well. Then, maybe that was just her predicament.

Normally Amy's life was hectic enough- Amy was a Cahill, and Cahills never had it easy. She was part of an illustrious family that included some of the most famous people in the history of the world. Last year Amy and her brother Dan had competed in a race to find the 39 Clues of the Cahills, the family divided into many small teams, pitted against each other in a deathly race... Amy still shuddered to think about it.

But after all the heartache that was the 39 Clues, they'd finally put the searching to rest, and the family was more or less united now, disregarding the usual squabbles between branches- between the individual Cahill's who's ancestors were the children of the 39 Clues' creator, Gideon Cahill.

Though that was the past and this was the present, Amy still had nightmares that her relatives were trying to kill her.

This year, this NOW, though, was filled for Amy, with her trying her best to unite all the branches as completely as she could. It was a time for healing, a time for some rest. Amy could never shake the feeling that her now-peaceful life could stay as it was, but that's another story for another time... Yes, Amy wasn't in a race to become powerful anymore. She was just Amy Cahill, trying to adjust to living life as a normal teenager, or as normal as she could get with her crazy relatives.

Amy even had a boyfriend.

Amy winced at that thought, and pressed her head against the cold glass of the window. It didn't help to soothe her frayed nerves like she'd hoped. Amy's boyfriend was Evan Tolliver, a boy from school. And he was currently the source of her misery.

Indirectly, of course.

Amy had always liked him. He was like a sweet nerd. He was that chivalrous guy that many would overlook, but he had a lot of qualities Amy valued, and for a while when they'd gotten together, they were inseparable. But things seemed to be changing fast. Amy's head was giving her a hard time, a headache pounding behind her skull.

There was so much on her mind.

Amy was alone, but suddenly she sensed someone coming. It was just a trait of hers now, naturally, after over a month of the clue hunt- she was always aware. A person stepped up behind her, and she turned to see Ian Kabra.

Ian Kabra was a really, really distant relative. Frankly, Amy didn't know how they could ever be related at all. He was extremely good looking, with dark hair and dark eyes. Amy often felt plain around Ian and his equally gorgeous sister, Natalie. Amy had light, red-brown hair and green eyes, and while she wasn't completely unfortunate, her looks were no match for the Kabra's.

It was hard to think now, looking at Ian, that he'd basically tried to kill her a lot of times. Or at least hurt her enough to put her out of the race. It was pretty disturbing. Whatever else Ian was now, though, he wasn't a murderer... The Cahills were all a prickly bunch, and it was hard to get them to cooperate, but it was so far from what they'd been last year that it was miraculous; the end of the clue hunt had united them all, and now many Cahills often stayed at Amy and her brother's house, because it was like a meeting place, or a headquarters. (As was the case with Ian and Natalie Kabra, here because for the time being, they had no where else to stay permanently.)

Amy had worked hard to get everyone to suck it up and stop being so proud. The Cahills were a team now, ALL of them...

Amy now wondered why Ian was here. "Are you looking for Sinead?" She muttered, naming another Cahill relative. "She said she finished making your computer installment." Amy looked back to her window, expecting naturally that Ian would leave. The two didn't associate all that much, which was sort of what Amy preferred. Ian was particularly unnerving with his amber eyes, and he knew it, too.

He didn't leave.

"I'm not looking for Sinead." Ian replied, his voice with an accent. Ian was British. He leaned forward and tapped on the glass of the window. "Did you know," He said dryly, "That you can see through these things from the outside too?" His clipped voice was sarcastic, and as usual, him speaking to Amy at all made her cheeks flush.

Involuntarily.

Amy realized what he meant. She'd been staring out the window for so long, a million things running through her mind, but all relating to her boyfriend. The hollow feeling in her stomach grew, and she thought it'd consume her if she didn't get it off her chest. He must have seen her through the window from outside. Telling Ian her problems, however, sounded like a horrible idea to poor Amy.

"I did know that." She mumbled, still refusing to look Ian in the eyes. Amy had grown so much during the clue hunt- she wasn't nearly as shy, and she never stuttered, except around Ian. And that was still hardly ever. It wasn't her fault, anyway. Ian's good looks could probably kill. "What do you want?" She mustered the effort to look a little more directly at him. The hairs on her arm prickled, and she thought that she was being ridiculous; she could LOOK at him, goodness, it couldn't be that bad... She looked him in the eyes.

His eyes were beautiful and clever and thoughtful and dark, and he peered down at her, and shrugged at her question.

"To know what's on your mind." He responded.

Amy hesitated. She wondered what motives Ian could have. Sure, they weren't enemies any more. But he was still so different, and he very much looked down on a lot of things, like her low-standard of living. (At least according to him.) And he made that pretty obvious. Amy had always thought him someone who thought he was better than everyone else, which bothered her, but he seemed a bit different now, maybe more reserved. "Why?" She asked, the word slipping out of her mouth.

Ian smiled charmingly, winningly. It was simply his nature to get what he wanted. "Why not?" He asked.

Amy sighed. "It's... Evan." She faltered, and felt ridiculous, because Ian was probably the worlds worst therapist, starting with the fact that he wasn't one. And ending with the fact that he was Ian Kabra. "I-I just... I wish I liked him more." It sounded stupid, but she had no idea how to explain what she meant. She struggled to think of fitting words, silently wishing she hadn't started at all. "I..." Amy buried her face in her knees, which were drawn up to her chest. She winced, and she said, her voice coming out muffled, "I don't think he really understands me."

Ian raised an eyebrow, though Amy couldn't see him, as her face was hidden. Trouble in boy land, he figured, trying not to smirk. Ian hated Evan. He was so annoying, with his thick glasses, his disastrous wardrobe choices, and his overall obliviousness to all that Amy and the other Cahills had been through. And the worst of all, the fact that Amy was his GIRLFRIEND. He was always hanging around... Amy obviously deserved someone better than Evan. Evan wasn't even a Cahill.

"Go on." Ian prompted, eager to hear more.

"I'm starting to think... I... After the clue hunt, I just wanted things to be normal..." Amy said quietly, her voice as hollow as she felt. She was clearly overwhelmed, and Ian was only just starting to get a real sense of what she was talking about. Amy was obviously distraught, but Ian would be a liar if he didn't admit to himself that he was at least still a little pleased.

"You thought you liked Evan because he doesn't know anything about the clue hunt." Ian said, like he was confirming her worst fears or something. He was careful to keep his usual masks about him. A slightly interested expression, and a knowing voice. Ian sat down next to Amy on the window ledge, and they were so close that they brushed each other ever so slightly when they moved.

Amy looked mortified.

"Yes." She mumbled, still into her knees. "He just... I thought I wanted someone who didn't know anything about the clue hunt." Amy lifted her head and stared across the room with her vibrant green eyes. "But I can't keep pretending it didn't happen. It's like a part of me now, whether I like it or not."

Amy looked so strong, suddenly, and Ian knew that she wasn't the same girl she'd been the day of her grandmother, Grace's funeral, the day the clue hunt began. It had shaken up both of their lives- Ian and his sister had been born and bred into the idea of the clue hunt, but Amy and her brother had learned about it the day of. Ian allowed himself a smile. Amy was stronger now, but he could still make her stutter, and that pleased him. Ian found himself nodding to Amy's words. Something he didn't usually do, he opened his mouth and words came out, but they were real words, spoken from his heart. His masks fell and it was just Ian, which was the hardest thing he could be.

It was just easier to be someone else around everyone, except for Amy. It was opposite with her- against everything he'd ever known, he felt like he wanted to be himself, which was absolutely absurd.

"I know how you feel." He found himself saying. And this was probably the first time in his life that Ian had said anything remotely like that. But his gaze traveling to match Amy's gaze at the far side of the room, looking, though not really seeing, because he was lost in the past, in things that had already happened and couldn't be changed, not for all the wishing in the world.

For instance, all the times he'd tried to hurt Amy in the clue hunt.

Amy was skeptical for a moment. She'd always thought that herself and Dan had gotten the short end of the stick with the clue hunt. They were by far the most naive, believing that people could be good, and entering the race hypothetically blind. They had always had the least knowledge; they'd had friends who got hurt, even died, because of the clue hunt. All the pain, collectively, was reality, and that of which Amy's own relatives had done to her and Dan. It had been so hard to forgive, but she forgave them anyway, because it was a philosophy of sorts for her.

What else could she have done?

So, yes, Amy was a little skeptical of Ian when he said he knew what she meant. Amy had nightmares every night, without fail, about the horrible things she'd endured. Things, she knew, that no one, ever, should have to go through. But Amy's eyes flickered over Ian's. And she could see it there, a shadow, like a nightmare. The absolute daunting of things that would always haunt you. It was familiar.

She saw it when she looked in the mirror.

Amy didn't know what the Kabras had endured. They had always seemed to be on top, in the lead, the entire race. They were cruel and willing to do whatever it took to win. Except they hadn't.

Ian and Natalie had disowned their own mother. They'd learned the hard way that everything they knew, everything they'd been taught, was selfish and wrong and just evil, which is a lot to take in, you know, if you think about it.

For Ian, this realization had begun on a specific day of the clue hunt, where he'd been forced to really deal with the fact that Ian's mother would have killed Amy Cahill, right in front of him. KILLED her. He and Natalie had always aimed to put people out of the way and keep going. But it had been so REAL that day- Ian's mother would have taken another human's life. The realization, however, fully came to completion another day during the hunt, when Amy had saved his life on the top of Mount Everest. She'd shown unbelievable goodness in her heart that Ian just didn't think he'd ever have, and thinking about it made him feel bitter, and lost.

Ian's own mother had killed Amy's parents.

It made him sick.

So Amy could see it, flickering like a ghostly fire. There were feelings they just couldn't put into words. Things they'd witnessed that were still beyond comprehension, and Ian understood. There was no way, ever, that anyone who hadn't experienced something like that could ever understand. The story was in pieces like a puzzle, but they all slowly dropped into place, and there was a mutual sense of understanding between the two Cahill descendants as they sat under the window on the ledge.

"You thought you could make it disappear." Ian said. His voice was steady but quite quiet. "But you couldn't outrun it." His mouth was set in a grim line, facing reality, which he didn't normally really attempt to do, his amber eyes hard. Amy looked like she was about to burst into tears.

"Evan's great." Amy whispered, looking like a deer in headlights. "But you're right. He can't make my problems disappear." Ian caught her eye, and she looked so upset. He smiled for once, trying to lighten the mood on their pity party.

"It could be worse." Ian exclaimed. He leaned in close to Amy, and she turned her head slightly, her cheeks beginning to turn pink, and she couldn't bring herself to meet his eyes. "For example, you could be sitting here with Evan right now, and not me." He grinned his signature good-looking smile, and Amy laughed, because it was just so in-character of him, she thought, though it still hurt a little because of what she knew she'd have to tell Evan when she next saw him.

"Ian?" Amy's cheeks were still pink, and the color didn't exactly fade with her next words. "T-thanks. For... Y-you know... This..." Amy's old stutter crept back into her voice. She mumbled, "I n-never would have guessed we'd have this conversation..."

Ian sat back abruptly, seeming to realize how close they were. It wasn't that he didn't like it, it was just that he wasn't sure of anything, all of a sudden. Which was unusual for him, definitely. He wondered if Amy felt sparks, too, when she looked at him. He thought back to the year before, when he'd almost kissed her. Out of deception, yeah. But it still would have counted, right? He felt doubting now that she would actually like him back, or at least was unsure, since he tended to have similar effects on all girls.

Plus, now was quite selfishly a horrible time to ask, considering she had only just decided to break up with her boyfriend. And also she didn't seem to pleased about it, and ALSO, technically, she and Evan were still together. At least until she broke them up. AND it still made Ian wince internally from the fact that he seemed to have fallen for her at all...

Yup, that was it. Sitting there under the window with Amy he knew he had been absurd, lying to himself and acting like he didn't have feelings for her. He was just going to have to see if she liked him back, and Ian knew the best way to do that. He did something that would have horrified his disowned mother.

Ian Kabra kissed Amy Cahill.

Ian had kissed a thousand girls, no big deal. But he'd never had a real attraction to any of those girls. The kisses were kind of like promotional things, just to maintain his image at his various fabulous schools.

Amy had only kissed Evan Tolliver.

All at once Amy was horrified and so shocked she thought she might fall off the window ledge; but she was paralyzed and didn't fall. Amy would have never, ever guessed that in a billion years she would kiss Ian. NO, Ian would kiss HER. It was electrifying and horrible and she liked it but she felt terrible inside. Her eyes were owl-wide, before she let herself sink into the kiss. No, she hadn't really let herself, it was probably against her will...

Maybe...

It was a short kiss, and Amy thought she was going to start crying when he pulled away. Just one of those emotional girly moments. It felt like everything was crashing down on her at once, and she felt torn. The ever-present pain of the past. The nervousness of what the future could hold. And most of all, the insanity of the present, sitting in her house with Ian Kabra, and they had KISSED.

Ian was completely taken by surprise. Yes, he'd liked Amy, but he didn't know kissing could BE like that. He'd kissed so many girls that it was trivial and kissing wasn't special. It was, as he'd thought before, more like promotional to his personal image or whatever. But Amy was nice and she smelled like flowers, and kissing her was SO not promotional, though it had once almost been.

No, even then he'd liked her.

Amy was so cute. He almost felt bad for her. Obviously he could keep his feelings in check. It was probably what he did best, better than anything, even though Amy derailed him a bit from time to time. But Amy herself was a shy mess. Amy opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. A smirk appeared on Ian's lips. He brushed Amy's hair out of her face with a light finger, so that he could see her eyes. He loved them, because they were exquisite, framed with dark, long eyelashes.

"W-what was that?" Amy squeaked finally, shying away from his touch.

Ian was grinning now, full out. But he couldn't just let them get together like this... No, this was too easy. He decided he'd have to mess it up a little, because he was Ian Kabra, and he was an expert on girls, even if the girl he was working on happened to be Amy. He stood up and Amy watched him, looking probably the most confused he'd ever seen her.

And then Ian Kabra walked away, feeling satisfied.

Now Amy wouldn't have Evan on her mind. Ian had made it surefire that she'd be thinking of him instead.

Ian walked outside, and from there, he waved up at Amy's window, still smiling triumphantly. From where he stood, Ian could see through Amy's window, and her blushing face was being covered by her hands in embarrassment before she slipped away from the window. Ian thought of his kiss with her, and felt incredibly pleased with himself.

Yes, Ian Kabra always got what he wanted.


End file.
